1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lifting heald for a device intended to form a leno selvedge on a fabric or hosiery with two lifting healds and one half heald alternately taken along by the lifting healds, whereas the lifting heald has, in the area of the one end, at least one magnet for guiding the half heald and a web for taking along the half heald, whereas the spacing between the web and the magnet approximately corresponds to the length of the half heald's legs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A lifting heald as mentioned above is known out of DE-PS 38 18 680. The device for forming a leno selvedge hereby consists of two lifting healds arranged on two alternately moved heald frames of a mechanical loom. The device for forming a leno selvedge also has a half heald that is alternately taken along by the movement of the lifting healds. The half heald has two legs converging at their upper end into an eye intended to guide a stationary thread. Such a half heald is made of a metallic material.
Each lifting heald has at least one magnet at its lower end. The magnet causes in turn each of the lifting healds to take along the half heald in a controlled way, the magnetic force making sure that the half heald is held by the lifting heald during their common movement. This principle is--as already explained--known out of DE-PS 38 18 680. The half heald is taken along by the lifting heald and by a web arranged in the lifting heald, the half heald sitting with its eye located at its upper end on the web during the movement it executes together with each of the lifting healds.
The lifting heald was found to indent in the area of the web. This is essentially due to the big number of strokes of 1200 and more wefts that are causing the half heald to strike with very high velocity and with correspondingly high energy onto the web. In order to avoid such an indentation it has already been suggested to insert in the lifting heald underneath the magnet a stopper for the half heald's leg. The wear in the area of the web could thus considerably be reduced and the service life of the lifting heald considerably lengthened. Nevertheless, even with this stopper, the service life still was too short, particularly when taking into consideration the increasing number of strokes in the mechanical looms.